40 

B9 


Publication  No.  28 


THE   CONFIDENTIAL 
EXCHANGE 

A  FORM  OF  SOCIAL  CO-OPERATION 


BY 

MARGARET  F.  BYINGTON 

ASSOCIATE  DIRECTOR  OF  THE  CHARITY  ORGANIZATION   DEPARTMENT 
OF  THE  RUSSELL  SAGE  FOUNDATION 

AUTHOR  OF 

"Homestead,  the  Households  of  a  Mill  Town"  and  "What  Social 
Workers  Should  Know  about  their  Own  Communities" 


Charity  Organization  Department  of  the 

Russell  Sage  Foundation 

Room  613,  105  East  Twenty-second  Street 

New  York  City 

1912 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

Microsoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/confidentialexchOObyinricl 


THE   CONFIDENTIAL 
EXCHANGE 

A  FORM  OF  SOCIAL  CO-OPERATION 


BY 

MARGARET  F.  BYINGTON 

m 

ASSOCIATE   DIRECTOR  OF  THE   CHARITY  ORGANIZATION   DEPARTMENT 
OF  THE  RUSSELL  SAGE  FOUNDATION 


AUTHOR  OF 

"Homestead,  the  Households  of  a  Mill  Town"  and  "What  Social 
Workers  Should  Know  about  their  Own  Communities" 


Charity  Organization  Department  of  the 

Russell  Sage  Foundation 

Room  613,  105  East  Twenty-second  Street 

New  York  City 

1912 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I.  HISTORY  OF  THE  OLDEST  EXCHANGE 3 

The  Boston  Office  System 5 

II.  THE  PRESENT  INTEREST  IN  EXCHANGES 7 

1.  More  Intelligent  Work  with  Families 7 

2.  Help  in  Medical  Diagnosis 9 

3.  Financial  Saving 9 

III.  ADMINISTRATION 9 

1.  Management 10 

2.  Getting  Started 11 

3.  Growth 12 

4.  Interesting  New  Agencies 12 

5.  Answering  Objections 13 

6.  Further  Arguments 15 

7.  Early  Inquiry 19 

8.  Using  the  Information 20 

IV.^OFFICE  METHODS 22 

1.  Card  Indexes 22 

2.  Filing  Cabinets 25 

3.  Methods  of  Inquiry 26 

4.  The  Personal  Equation 28 

5.  Cost 29 


I 


THE  CONFIDENTIAL  EXCHANGE 

A  FORM  OF  SOCIAL  CO-OPERATION 


The  Confidential  Exchange  is  a  card  index;  but,  far  from  being  a 
mere  device,  it  grows  out  of  and  is  dependent  upon  a  living  spirit  not 
often  associated  with  indexes.  "  Withersoever  the  spirit  went,  thither 
as  the  spirit  went  the  wheels  also  were  lifted  up  withal,  and  followed 
it:  for  the  spirit  of  life  was  in  the  wheels.*  Skilfully  manipulated  by 
a  group  of  people  believing  profoundly  in  the  principle  of  social  co-ope- 
ration, it  can  win  gradually  the  working  together  of  a  large  group  of 
social  agencies.  Through  its  aid  no  one  of  these  agencies  need  take  a 
step  in  any  direction  to  benefit  a  human  being  without  being  assured 
of  the  advice  and  experience  of  all  the  others  that  have  ever  known 
the  same  person  or  any  of  his  kindred.  Like  all  other  living  things  it 
is  going  to  develop  in  directions  that  this  pamphlet  cannot  indicate, 
and  is  going  to  serve  great  ends  that  are  now  only  very  dimly  appre- 
hended. But  one  way  to  promote  future  growth  is  to  analyze  and 
record  present  experience.  Preparatory  to  writing  this  brief  account 
of  the  methods  of  some  of  the  Exchanges  now  in  operation  in  the 
United  States,  I  visited  five  of  them  in  191 1.  The  results  of  these 
visits  are  given  in  the  following  pages,  first  in  a  description  of  the 
successive  changes  made  in  the  oldest  Exchange — the  one  in  Boston; 
then  in  an  enumeration  of  the  reasons  for  the  great  interest  now  shown 
in  Exchanges;  and  last  in  a  somewhat  detailed  account  of  their 
practical  administration  and  office  details.  It  has  not  been  possible, 
probably,  to  answer  all  the  questions  that  are  in  the  minds  of  those 
who  are  at  present  thinking  of  starting  new  Exchanges,  but  personal 
correspondence  on  the  subject,  addressed  to  the  Charity  Organization 
Department,  will  receive  careful  attention. 

I.  HISTORY  OF  THE  OLDEST  EXCHANGE 

The  Exchange  that  is  the  oldest  in  point  of  time,  though  one  of 
the  youngest  in  spirit,  is  that  conducted  by  the  Boston  Associated 
Charities,  and  the  story  of  its  development  throws  an  interesting 
light  on  the  present  status  of  the  movement  for  Exchanges.  • 

Thirty-five  years  ago  even  Boston  had  few  of  the  modern  types 
of  philanthropic  agency  now  so  generally  established.    There  were 

*Ezekiel  1,  20. 

3 


71Z2&8 


no  children  *s  aid  societies,  no  charity  organization  society,  no  medical 
social  service,  'ho  settlements.  A  few  large  relief  agencies  existed, 
including  the,  city  outdoor  relief  department,  and,  in  addition,  there 
were  sewing  circles  and  other  small  groups  giving  relief  with  informal 
and  kindly  service  to  the  poor.  With  the  increase  in  their  number 
and  with  the  beginning  of  the  foreign  immigration,  these  agencies 
found  it  more  and  more  difficult  to  know  the  people  they  helped  and 
to  know  each  what  the  others  were  doing.  So,  in  1876,  a  group  of 
volunteer  workers  decided  to  start  a  Registration  Bureau  in  which 
they  could  enter  the  names  of  all  the  families  being  aided  by  charity 
and  the  amount  of  relief  that  they  were  receiving.  '  Delegates  from 
the  various  agencies  came  together  to  discuss  the  plan  and,  after 
expressing  their  approval,  elected  a  committee  to  carry  on  the  work. 
A  small  amount  of  money  was  raised  and  one  of  the  volunteers  in- 
terested undertook  to  do  the  work  for  a  nominal  salary.  A  good  start 
was  made;  the  co-operation  of  several  of  the  largest  societies  and  of  the 
Overseers  of  the  Poor  was  secured.  But,  after  afyear  and  a  half , the  vol- 
unteer was  obliged  to  give  up  the  work,  and  the  plan  was  abandoned. 

When  in  1879  the  Associated  Charities  was  organized,  it  took 
up  this  work  again  as  a  normal  part  of  its  task  of  organizing  the 
charitable  forces  of  the  community.  '  More  formal  methods  were 
then  adopted  and  a  registrar  employed.  Instead  of  recording  only 
the  amount  of  relief  given,  as  had  been  done  at  the  start,  societies 
were  urged  to  send  in  the  history  of  the  families  and  what  had  been 
done  for  them.  ''This  change  of  policy  has  done  much  to  gain  the 
confidence  of  the  public.  "*  Some  of  the  societies  loaned  their  records, 
which  were  copied  in  full  in  the  Registration  Bureau,  others  sent  in 
lists  on  blank  forms  furnished  by  the  office.  In  the  first  year,  July  i, 
1879,  to  June  30, 1880,  7716  families  were  registered  by  345  individuals 
and  44  societies,  including  most  of  the  important  ones  in  the  city. 

At  first,  the  emphasis  was  largely  on  preventing  duplication  of 
relief,  and  only  secondarily  on  combining  knowledge  of  individual 
families.  In  the  first  annual  report  of  the  Associated  Charities  in 
1880  the  objects  were  given  as  follows: 

Registration  aims  to  accomplish  Four  Great  Aims  by  gathering  up  a  Full  True 
Record  of  Every  Family  Receiving  Relief. 

1.  To  aid  every  private  person  t©  give  alms  only  to  worthy  poor,  or  rather  to 
give  with  knowledge. 

2.  To  lessen  the  labors  of  relieving  agencies,  by  giving  to  each  the  knowledge 
of  the  others. 

3.  To  stop  imposture  so  that  the  occupation  of  living  on  alms  may  cease.  Reg- 
istration notifies  every  lazy  tramp  to  quit  Boston  or  go  to  work. 

4.  The  main  object  is  to  make  sure  that  relief  is  adapted  to  the  real  needs. 
This  will  lessen  relief  for  the  unworthy.  But  for  the  really  worthy  and  most  suf- 
fering poor  it  should  make  relief  more  full  and  prompt  and  tender. 

Or  again,  its  object  is  "to  secure  an  interchange  of  information,  and  thereby 
detect  imposture,  discourage  begging,  distinguish  the  worthy  from  the  unworthy, 
and  promote  economy  and  efficiency  in  the  distribution  of  relief." 

*  First  Annual  Report  of  the  Boston  Associated  Charities,  1880,  p.  55. 

4 


From  that  period  until  within  the  last  few  years,  the  general  plan 
was  the  same,  the  growth  of  the  Bureau  being  slow  but  sure.  The 
Associated  Charities  all  this  time  was  steadily  developing  its  program 
of  family  rehabilitation,  in  which  relief  plays  an  important  but  a 
subordinate  part,  but  still  for  a  good  many  years  its  Registration 
Bureau  continued  to  be  used  almost  exclusively  by  relief-giving  soci- 
eties. More  agencies  were  being  organized  in  the  community  whose 
service  to  the  poor  did  not  include  the  giving  of  relief,  and  which 
claimed  that  there  was  consequently  no  reason  why  they  should 
register  their  work.  But  one  large  group,  the  children's  agencies, 
soon  recognized  that  some  form  of  exchange  was  needed.  Families 
often  drifted  from  one  children's  society  to  another  or  even  asked  the 
services  of  two  at  the  same  time,  and  it  became  increasingly  evident 
that  their  work  with  a  given  family  would  be  unintelligent  and  super- 
ficial if  they  did  not  know  whether  others  had  dealt  or  were  dealing 
with  it.  They  had  felt,  however,  that  registering  the  facts  about  the 
children  under  their  care  was  a  violation  of  the  strict  confidence  with 
which  we  all  feel  that  such  life  stories  should  be  guarded.  The 
Registration  Bureau  also  realized  that  the  copies  of  their  records  were 
not  always  up  to  date  and  did  not  give  as  full  a  picture  of  the  family 
or  individual  situation  as  was  in  the  mind  of  the  visitor,  so  that  in  any 
important  case  it  was  necessary  to  go  directly  to  the  society  which 
knew  the  people.  The  Bureau  therefore  offered  to  accept  from 
the  children's  agencies  only  "identifying  information"  and  to  .refer 
directly  to  them  anyone  who  inquired  about  one  of  their  applicants. 

This  plan  has  been  extended  to  the  other  organizations.  The 
Confidential  Exchange,  as  it  is  now  called,  is  no  longer  an  office  where 
you  record  your  knowledge  of  a  person  or  a  family  for  the  benefit  of 
some  one  else;  it  is  rather  a  source  through  which  you  may  secure 
information  that  will  be  of  definite  value  to  you  in  your  own  service 
to  that  particular  client.  Societies  now  do  not  "register  their  cases 
with  the  Associated  Charities,"  but  "inquire  of  the  Confidential 
Exchange."  When  an  agency  telephones  or  otherwise  refers  the 
names  of  all  the  new  families  applying  to  it  that  day,  these  are  re- 
corded in  the  office  as  so  many  "inquiries"  even  though  the  family 
may  not  previously  have  been  registered  in  the  Exchange.  Some- 
times there  is  a  good  deal  in  a  name,  especially  as  in  this  case,  where  a 
change  of  name  expresses  a  definite  change  in  policy.  The  Registra- 
tion Bureau  of  other  days  is  now  a  Confidential  Exchange  of  informa- 
tion among  the  societies  of  Boston,  for  which  the  Associated  Charities 
acts  as  agent.  The  history  of  its  growth  marks  the  direction  of  social 
service  development  in  the  last  thirty  years. 

The  Boston  Office  System. — The  general  office  system  developed 
in  Boston  has  been  so  closely  followed  that  it  may  be  briefly  outlined  here, 
leaving  for  a  later  section  more  detailed  discussion  of  office  methods. 

The  mechanism  of  the  Exchange  is  an  alphabetical  index  with  a 
card  for  each  family  or  unattached  person  known  to  any  of  the  in- 
quiring agencies.     This  card  gives  the  "identifying  information," 


the  names,  ages  and  occupations  of  the  members  of  the  family 
group,  names  and  addresses  of  relatives,  and  the  names  of  agencies 
interested,  with  the  date  on  which  each  inquired.  No  facts  about 
family  history  or  treatment  are  included.  When  a  co-operating 
society  becomes  interested  in  a  new  family,  or  in  any  one  of  its  mem- 
bers, it  inquires  at  once  whether  the  Confidential  Exchange  knows 
the  family  or  person.  This  inquiry  is  made  either  by  telephone  or 
by  mail  on  printed  slips  furnished  by  the  Exchange.  The  Exchange 
looks  up  the  family  in  the  index,  and  then  reports  to  the  inquiring 
agency  the  names  of  any  societies  that  have  been  previously  interested 
and  the  dates  on  which  they  inquired.  If  the  information  given  by 
the  inquirer  is  not  sufficient  to  make  identification  possible,  the  agency 
is  so  notified,  with  the  request  that  it  inform  the  Exchange  when 
further  facts  are  secured.  The  Children's  Aid  Society,  for  example, 
inquires  about  Mrs.  Mary  Jones,  and  is  informed  that  the  North 
End  Mission  "inquired"  in  January,  1910,  the  S.  P.  O.  C.  in  De- 
cember, 1910,  and  the  Social  Service  Department  of  the  Massachu- 
setts General  Hospital  in  March,  191 1.  The  Children's  Aid  Society 
then  calls  up,  or,  better  still,  personally  interviews,  all  these  agencies, 
and  secures  directly  from  them  what  data  they  have  about  Mrs. 
Jones  and  the  story  of  their  relations  with  her.  Experience  has 
indicated  that  it  is  wiser  to  have  no  information  in  regard  to  the  family 
pass  through  the  office  of  the  Exchange;  that  it  should  give  only  the 
names  of  interested  societies. 

While  its  mechanism  is  simple,  the  success  of  the  Boston  Exchange 
has  depended  in  a  measure  on  an  admirable  arrangement  of  cards  and  a 
filing  system  which  have  made  accurate  and  rapid  identification  possible. 

With  a  sound  system  as  basis,  it  has  kept  mere  details  elastic  and 
adapted  them  to  the  methods  of  the  societies  interested.  From  the 
Overseers  of  the  Poor,  the  Exchange  borrows  current  records  and 
makes  its  own  index  cards;  to  one  private  relief  society,  it  sends  a 
clerk  to  do  the  necessary  transcribing;  from  most  of  the  child-caring 
and  medical  agencies  it  accepts  inquiries  by  telephone,  and  by  slip 
from  a  vocational  counsellor;  from  some  private  relief  funds  it  re- 
ceives a  monthly  list;  from  a  school  for  crippled  children  and  certain 
church  sewing  societies,  an  annual  one,  etc.  Some  agencies  use  both 
methods,  telephoning  about  cases  in  which  action  is  urgent,  and 
sending  in  lists  for  the  others. 

The  Exchange  must  recognize  that  in  order  to  make  kself  of  use 
to  the  other  agencies  it  must  be  earnest  but  adaptable;  must  be  ready 
to  consider  the  needs  of  others  rather  than  its  own  convenience.  No 
system  of  cards  can  make  it  succeed  unless  behind  it  is  a  genuine 
belief  that  the  Exchange  is  performing  a  service  of  real  value  to  the 
families  and  individuals  recorded.  The  recognition  of  the  value  of 
this  faith  is  perhaps  most  clearly  shown  by  a  recent  incident.  The 
council  of  one  of  the  settlements,  on  which  serve  members  of  the 
neighborhood  clubs,  had  declined  to  allow  their  nurse  to  inquire  at 
the  Confidential  Exchange.     At  the  suggestion  of  one  of  the  residents, 


three  members  of  the  mothers'  club  of  the  settlement  visited  the 
Exchange.  They  were  shown  the  card,  and  were  told  how  it  would 
help  the  nurse,  especially  by  informing  her  whether  other  medical 
agencies  had  previously  treated  the  family.  They  asked  some 
questions  which  gave  an  opportunity  to  explain  its  confidential 
character,  and  went  home  satisfied  to  recommend  that  the  council 
allow  the  nurse  to  use  the  Exchange.  The  democratic  spirit  which 
animates  the  work  made  it  not  only  possible  but  the  natural  thing  to 
explain  the  Exchange  without  offense  to  one  whose  name  might  pos- 
sibly be  registered  there. 

II.  THE  PRESENT  INTEREST  IN  EXCHANGES 

As  we  contrast  the  present  situation  in  social  work  with  1879, 
when  the  first  Registration  Bureau  was  started,  we  see  a  marked 
increase  in  the  number  of  agencies  dealing  with  the  family  either 
directly  or  through  some  one  member  whose  problem  is  nevertheless 
bound  up  with  that  of  the  whole  family  group.  Children's  agencies 
are  now  realizing  the  desirability  of  keeping  children  in  their  own 
homes  whenever  this  is  possible,  social  service  departments  of  hos- 
pitals are  seeking  to  remove  social  handicaps  to  physical  recovery — 
these  are  but  two  instances  of  the  general  recognition  of  the  relation 
of  home  conditions  to  the  welfare  of  individuals.  This  interest  in 
home  life  means  that  many  more  people  are  visiting  homes,  and  that 
the  investigation  of  home  conditions  is  becoming  more  and  more 
extensive.  It  therefore  follows  that  the  Confidential  Exchange  is 
going  to  become  more  and  more  necessary;  that  the  experience  of  any 
given  agency  with  a  family  is  going  to  be.  utilized  by  an  increasing 
number  of  others.  The  constant  interchange  of  information,  more- 
over, leads  to  a  better  understanding  of  one  another's  points  of  view. 

1.  More  Intelligent  Work  with  Families. — As  our  standards 
of  investigation  are  raised,  we  must  see  to  it  that  a  family  shall 
not  have  to  answer  the  necessary  questions  more  than  once.  In  jus- 
tifying a  careful  and  full  investigation,  the  charity  organization  so- 
ciety has  always  claimed  that  a  family  need  never  be  so  investigated 
more  than  once,  since  records  keep  the  most  important  facts  of  family 
history  permanently.  But  when  a  number  of  agencies  in  one  city 
have  quite  as  high  a  standard  of  investigation  as  the  charity  organi- 
zation society,  or  a  better  one,  we  can  never  be  assured,  unless  we 
have  a  Confidential  Exchange,  that  the  family  may  not  have  to  tell 
its  story  repeatedly. 

This  is  not  only  true  of  past  history.  Each  agency  now  deal- 
ing with  a  family  sees  the  present  situation  from  a  different  angle 
and  makes  its  own  contribution  toward  the  complete  picture  ^ 
which  is  often  needed.  The  success  of  future  treatment  depends, 
however,  upon  joint  plans,  in  which  each  agency  has  a  definite  part 
assigned  to  it.  The  Confidential  Exchange  is  the  center  through 
which  such  co-ordination  is  most  easily  effected.     The  following  cases 


illustrate  these  three  ways  in  which  the  Exchange  has  definitely  aided 
in  making  work  with  families  more  intelligent. 

A  white  girl  with  a  colored  illegitimate  child,  applying  to  a  charity  organization 
society,  claimed  to  be  married  and  gave  full  information  about  her  home  and  rela- 
tives in  Nova  Scotia.  Through  the  Confidential  Exchange,  the  society  learned  that 
the  S.  P.  C.  C,  which  had  been  previously  interested  in  the  girl,  and  to  which  she 
had  told  the  same  story,  had  written  to  Nova  Scotia  but  could  learn  nothing  about 
her.  At  a  previous  address  the  landlady  had  told  the  S.  P.  C.  C.  that  the  girl  had 
an  aunt  in  one  of  the  suburbs,  but  they,  having  already  lost  track  of  her,  had  not 
followed  up  this  vague  clue.  The  charity  organization  society  was  thus  saved  the 
delay  incident  to  following  up  the  Nova  Scotia  clues,  and  also  secured  from  the  S.  P. 
C.  C.  the  previous  address  which  the  girl  had  let  fall  in  her  first  statement  but  not 
in  her  second.  The  worker  in  the  charity  organization  society  decided  to  seek  out 
the  mythical  aunt,  whom  she  found  to  be  a  person  of  considerable  intelligence  and 
willing  to  take  the  girl  under  her  personal  supervision.  It  was  a  difficult  case;  so 
cautious  were  the  girl  and  the  landlady  that  the  essential  clues  could  hardly  have 
been  secured  a  second  time. 

In  another  city  a  Confidential  Exchange  is  just  being  started,  and  the  infant 
mortality  nurses  and  the  tuberculosis  nurses  have  not  yet  learned  to  use  it.  One 
family  was  badly  infected  with  tuberculosis,  the  father  dying,  and  the  mother  in 
an  advanced  stage  of  the  disease.  There  were  seven  children,  the  youngest  a 
nursing  baby.  The  tuberculosis  nurse  kept  urging  the  mother  to  stop  nursing 
the  child,  but  she  refused  to  do  so.  Finally  the  tuberculosis  nurse  found  that 
the  infant  mortality  nurse  had  been  visiting  the  family  and,  not  knowing  that  the 
mother  had  tuberculosis,  was  insisting  that  she  nurse  the  child.  When  the  two 
nurses  got  together  on  the  case,  it  was  too  late,  for  the  baby  died  of  tubercular 
meningitis. 

A  Jewish  family  about  whom  a  settlement  inquired  of  the  Exchange  was  a 
month  later  referred  by  a  charitable  gentleman  to  the  Associated  Charities.  The 
latter  learned  from  the  settlement  that  the  woman,  who  was  a  widow  and  had 
formerly  been  most  independent  in  spirit,  was  getting  demoralized,  owing  to  the 
number  of  people  who  were  beginning  to  help  her.  The  gentleman  was  therefore 
referred  by  the  Associated  Charities  to  the  headworker,  who  persuaded  him  not  to 
give  the  woman  $200,  as  he  wished,  but  to  give  the  headworker  $30,  with  which  she 
provided  milk  for  the  children.  Within  two  weeks  two  others,  a  society  and  an 
individual,  inquired  and  were  referred  to  the  settlement.  Through  the  Exchange 
the  headworker  was  enabled  to  persuade  the  woman  to  follow  her  advice. 

The  Confidential  Exchange  is  of  special  help  sometimes  to  an 
agency  which  has  no  trained  social  worker  to  visit  its  families,  but 
which  needs  some  knowledge  of  home  conditions.  The  physician  in 
charge  of  a  milk  fund  says  that  the  Exchange  saves  them  money  and 
makes  their  work  more  efficient,  since  they  can  learn  through  it 
before  they  visit  a  family  whether  any  charity  knows  them  and  thinks 
they  should  have  free  milk,  and  if  so  whether  it  would  provide  the 
milk.  Their  nurse,  who  is  not  trained  in  making  social  diagnoses, 
would  find  it  more  difficult  to  make  the  decision.  Similar  help  was 
given  a  bureau  for  the  handicapped,  which  was  appealed  to  for  work 
by  a  woman  who  said  that  her  husband  was  employed  but  that, 
through  his  illness,  they  had  run  into  debt,  so  she  wished  to  earn 
something.  The  Associated,  Charities,  which  was  found  to  have 
known  the  family  for  some  time,  believed  that  the  man  shirked  his 
responsibilities,  and  that -the  woman  should  not  work  but  should,  by 

8 


careful  housekeeping,  keep  expenses  as  low  as  possible.     This  decision 
the  bureau  was  glad  to  accept. 

2.  Help  in  Medical   Diagnosis. — Especially    are    physicians   .  \ 
coming  to  realize  the  value  of  social  evidence  in  the  diagnosis  and 
treatment  of  disease.     The  following  story  shows  how  the  accumulated 
experiences  of  several  non-medical  societies  in  dealing  with  a  case 
finally  pointed  the  way  to  a  mental  diagnosis: 

A  Mrs.  W.  applied  to  the  Associated  Charities,  saying  that  she  had  been  married 
a  year  before,  and  that,  as  her  husband  was  now  ill  and  she  was  soon  to  be  confined, 
she  needed  help.  Through  the  Confidential  Exchange  the  visitor  learned  that  a 
reform  school  for  girls  had  inquired  about  her  some  years  earlier.  The  school 
stated  that  the  girl  was  below  par  mentally,  had  been  unruly  and  untruthful,  and 
had  already  had  one  illegitimate  child.  Every  effort  was  made  by  the  Associated 
Charities  to  keep  the  girl  straight,  but  without  success.  During  the  next  two  years 
six  agencies  inquired  of  the  Exchange  with  regard  to  her,  the  last  a  hospital  to  which  i 
she  was  applying  for  care  during  confinement.  It  had  intended  to  admit  her,  but,  J  \  *  .  » 
on  hearing  her  record,  decided  to  send  her  to  the  almshouse  infirmary,  with  the  j  }  <  '  \ 

request  that  she  be  placed  under  observation  for  commitment  to  an  institution  fori  _-  .-$  • 

the  feeble-minded.    Each  agency  that  had  known  her  contributed  some  facts  that! 
helped  to  reveal  her  mental  condition.  She  is  now  under  careful  medical  supervision.! 

3.  Financial  Saving. — Lastly,  we  may  refer  to  an  important  \ 
argument  for  the  Exchange — to  its  saving  of  time  for  each  society 
using  it.  A  children's  society  in  a  large  city  estimated  that  by  elimi- 
nating unnecessary  investigations  the  Exchange  had  saved  them  the 
equivalent  of  one  worker's  time — no  mean  item  in  a  crowded  budget. 
In  addition,  the  knowledge  secured  from  other  agencies  had  reduced 
the  time  and  money  expended  in  trying  out  wrong  plans  for  bettering 
family  situations. 

HI.  ADMINISTRATION 

We  may  grant,  then,  that  more  and  more  are  agencies  in  each 
community  feeling  the  need  and  value  of  the  Exchange.  In  visiting 
five  different  cities,  I  found  a  general  feeling  that  it  is  a  "community 
activity,"  and  that  every  agency  dealing  with  family  problems  should 
consider  its  use  an  integral  part  of  its  work.  Who  then  should  manage 
the  Exchange — the  charity  organization  society,  some  other  agency, 
or  the  societies  jointly?  The  Confidential  Exchange  is  more  likely  \ 
to  succeed  if  directly  controlled  by  one  agency,  and  that  the  one 
having  the  deepest  enthusiasm  for  intensive  work  with  families. 
Since  in  most  communities  this  is  or  should  be  the  charity  organiza- 
tion society,  it  is,  as  a  rule,  the  one  that  should  conduct  the  Exchange.^ 
If  there  is  no  charity  organization  society,  or  if  it  is  not  doing  good 
case  work,  then  some  other  agency  may  have  to  assume  the  task,  as 
does  the  S.  P.  C.  C.  in  some  Massachusetts  towns,  ^rne  Exchange 
cannot,  however,  perform  its  maximum  service,  in  making  more  in- 
telligent and  useful  our  work  with  and  for  human  beings  unless  the 
person  who  is  in  charge  knows  what  good,  case  work  is,  and  believes 
that  the  Exchange  can  be  so  conducted  as  to  improve  it.  The  Ex- 
change may  of  course  be  run,  as  in  Philadelphia,  by  a  committee 


/ 


representing  the  agencies  dealing  with  needy  families  and  dependent 
children.  While  this  form  of  organization  has  a  certain  obvious 
advantage,  in  emphasizing  the  co-operative  nature  of  the  work,  it 
makes  supervision  and  financial  support  more  difficult.  The  boards 
of  the  various  societies  are  not  easily  persuaded  to  appropriate,  from 
their  own  funds,  enough  money  to  maintain  the  work  adequately, 
and  its  appeal  will  not  be  popular  enough  to  make  raising  money  by 
appeal  easy.  Neither  is  a  delegate  supervisory  committee  likely  to 
push  the  work  with  the  same  enthusiasm  and  the  same  interest  in 
details  as  would  an  agency  which  has  a  primary  interest  in  it  and  is 
directly  responsible  for  its  success.  If  one  agency  finances  and 
manages  the  Confidential  Exchange,  it  may  have  an  advisory  com- 
mittee of  delegates  from  other  agencies — a  plan  that  has  been  well 
worked  out  both  in  Cleveland  and  in  Baltimore. 

i.  Management. — In  Cleveland,  at  the  request  of  a  number 
of  interested  agencies,  the  secretary  of  the  Associated  Charities  ap- 
pointed a  Committee  on  Co-operation,  consisting  of  nine  members 
and  including  a  paid  or  volunteer  worker  from  each  group  of  social 
agencies  in  the  city — medical,  children's,  city  charities,  etc.  This 
committee,  after  careful  deliberation,  decided  that  it  was  best  to 
have  the  Associated  Charities  conduct  the  Exchange  as  a  depart- 
ment of  their  work.  The  Exchange  is  therefore  in  the  Associated 
Charities  office,  and  the  expense  of  running  it  is  met  by  them.  The 
Committee  on  Co-operation,  however,  still  maintains  supervision 
over  it,  and  considers  from  time  to  time  how  to  increase  its  useful- 
ness. To  avoid  any  possible  conflict,  this  committee  also  agreed  to 
serve  as  the  Committee  on  Registration  Bureau  of  the  Associated 
Charities. 

In  Baltimore  the  Exchange  was  started  and  is  maintained  by  the 
Federated  Charities.  After  it  had  been  running  for  two  years,  the 
agencies  using  it  were  asked  to  send  delegates  to  a  Council  which 
should  discuss  the  working  of  the  Exchange  and  act  as  advisory 
committee  to  it.  This  Council,  though  it  has  been  in  existence  only 
a  short  time  and  is  still  in  the  experimental  stage,  has  proved  its 
worth  in  clearing  away  misconceptions  about  methods  and  objects, 
in  developing  co-operation,  and  in  evolving  ways  of  increasing  the 
Exchange's  usefulness  to  individual  agencies.  For  example,  the 
school  nurses  employed  by  the  city  keep  no  records  and  are  not 
given  an  appropriation  that  makes  it  possible  for  them  to  do  so. 
On  meeting  with  other  nurses  and  visitors  in  the  Council,  they  be- 
gan to  realize  that  their  knowledge  of  the  children  would  be  valuable, 
to  other  workers.  So  now  they  write  on  the  back  of  the  inquiry  slip 
the  important  facts  about  the  child  they  are  treating.  These  the 
Confidential  Exchange  copies  on  its  index  card  (contrary  to  its  usual 
custom) ,  and  thus  makes  the  facts  available  for  others  interested.  It  is 
hoped,  of  course,  that  later  the  city  will  provide  for  keeping  full  records. 

A  spirit  of  unity  seems  to  have  been  fostered  already  by  the 
Council.    Through  it  a  number  of  conferences  have  been  arranged 


about  the  individual  families  in  which  several  agencies  happen  to  be 
interested — a  valuable  method  of  solving  difficult  case  problems.  One 
of  these  cases  may  be  of  interest : 

A  woman  left  her  husband  and  with  her  child  went  to  live  with  another  man, 
by  whom  she  had  a  second  child.     When  the  Federated  Charities  became  interested 
in  her,  they  insisted  that  she  leave  the  man  and,  that  the  association  might  be  bro- 
ken, moved  her  to  a  new  neighborhood.     But  the  man  followed  her,  and  the  Fed- 
erated Charities  then  felt  that,  as  she  was  not  a  very  good  mother,  her  home  should 
be  broken  up.    A  worker  from  another  society,  who  visited  her,  felt  less  strongly 
the  evil  of  this  situation,  and  was  willing  to  let  the  two  live  together,  since  he 
thought  that  the  woman  was  morally  too  weak  to  know  right  from  wrong,  and  that., 
the  man  was  helping  to  support  her.     It  was  found  that  several  other  agencies  were   \*/ 
working  with  the  family  and  a  conference  was  called  at  the  business  office  of  one  of  ^^ 
the  individuals  interested  in  them.     In  this  conference  it  was  decided  to  give  the-^ 
woman  one  more  trial,  but  it  was  agreed  that,  if  she  ever  took  the  man  back, 
they  would  all  unite  to  place  the  children  in  a  better  home. 

_  A  joint  committee  is  not,  of  course,  an  essential  part  of  a  Con- 
fidential Exchange;  the  Boston  Exchange  has  increased  its  usefulness 
and  the  enthusiasm  of  the  co-operating  agencies  without  one.  In 
many  communities,  however,  a  committee  would  undoubtedly  be 
helpful  both  in  securing  co-operation  and  in  providing  a  means  of 
developing  social  activities  in  common. 

2.  Getting  Started. — Granting,  then,  that  some  one  society 
is  to  carry  on  the  Exchange,  the  start  should  be  made  only  after 
preliminary  consultation  with  those  agencies  whose  co-operation  is 
essential  to  the  success  of  the  plan.  A  Confidential  Exchange  which 
has  not  the  support  of  other  agencies  than  the  one  starting  it  is  ob- 
viously valueless.  Probably  not  more  than  a  few  will  be  enthusiastic 
in  the  beginning,  but  that  nucleus  there  must  be. 

To_^am_s^ic^bjLcj^^_a^irly_iong.  period- of -discussion  is  some- 
times necessary.  Talk  about  its  general  value,  call  to  the  attention 
of  other  agencies  special  instances  showing  the  need  of  it,  keep  it  in 
your  mind  and  theirs  until  the  feeling  has  ripened.  Probably  the 
smaller  the  city  the  more  such  education  will  be  needed,  for  the  less 
obvious  is  the  need  and  the  stronger  the  prejudice  to  be  overcome. 

When  this  small  group,  including  perhaps  the  associated  charities, 
the  children's  aid  society,  the  largest  relief  society,  and  possibly  the 
city  charities,  have  expressed  their,  interest  and  willingness  to  co- 
operate, a  meeting  should  be  called  of  delegates  from  all  the  social 
agencies  of  the  city  to  whom  the  plan  is  to  be  proposed  and  whose 
co-operation  is  to  be  asked.  As  a  preliminary,  literature  descrip- 
tive of  the  Exchange  may  be  sent  to  the  paid  workers  and  board 
members  of  charitable  agencies.  At  this  meeting  the  constructive 
side  of  the  work,  the  saving  to  the  agencies  of  time  and  money,  and 
above  all,  the  genuine  service  to  their  clients,  the  poor,  should  be 
emphasized.  Sample  forms  should  be  shown  to  indicate  how  little 
work  is  involved  for  the  inquiring  societies,  and  to  convince  them 
that  they  are  not  being  asked  to  give  confidential  information  about 


their  families.  It  may  seem  wise  to  call  this  meeting  before  cards 
are  printed  or  final  plans  for  the  Exchange  made,  so  that  those  present 
may  suggest  ways  in  which  the  work  could  best  be  adapted  to  their 
office  methods. 

There  need  be  no  discouragement  if  such  a  meeting  is  small;  the 
Confidential  Exchange,  until  it  is  really  at  work,  is  too  new  a  plan  to 
appeal  to  many  people.  How  can  a  card  index  help  them?  They  are 
quite  capable  of  dealing  with  their  own  cases,  and  besides  it  is  too  much 
trouble.  Such  objections,  which  are  likely  to  be  expressed  by  many, 
can  be  overcome  only  as  the  Exchange  demonstrates  its  real  value. 

3.  Growth. — In  Cleveland,  the  members  of  the  Committee  on 
Co-operation  have  assumed  responsibility  for  the  agencies  in  their 
respective  groups,  going  to  them  personally  and  urging  them  to  use 
the  Exchange.  These  representatives  of  the  various  societies  make 
excellent  missionaries,  because  the  Exchange  is  of  greater  value  to 
each  society  in  proportion  as  all  the  agencies  in  its  own  group 
inquire.  Moreover,  arguments  that  come  thus  from  outside  the  Con- 
fidential Exchange  itself  have  more  force,  and  emphasize  the  co- 
operative character  of  the  undertaking.  The  members  of  the  com- 
mittee in  Cleveland  also  plan  to  remind  their  fellow  workers  who  have 
agreed  to  inquire  but  fail  to  do  so  regularly. 

If  certain  types  of  agency — for  instance,  the  medical  charities  or 
the  churches — are  not  convinced  that  they  need  to  inquire,  call  an 
informal  conference  of  representatives  from  each  agency  in  the  group. 
Get  either  a  worker  in  one  of  them  who  believes  in  the  Exchange,  or 
some  one  from  your  own  board  whose  word  would  have  infiuence-r-a 
doctor,  for  example,  or  a  clergyman — to  explain  its  especial  value  to 
them.  In  Boston,  at  the  request  of  one  of  the  medical  agencies,  a 
special  leaflet  was  prepared  for  physicians  and  others  interested  in 
medical  charities. 

A  totally  different  way  of  inducing  agencies  to  use  the  Exchange 
is  to  secure  the  backing  of  your  Charities  Endorsement  Committee. 
The  Cleveland  Chamber  of  Commerce  has  made  one  inflexible  rule  in 
granting  endorsement;  that  the  agency,  if  it  deals  with  individuals 
or  families,  shall  register  with  the  Charities  Clearing  House.  This 
step  can  hardly  be  taken,  however,  until  the  Exchange  is  well  or- 
ganized and  has  secured  general  recognition  in  the  community. 

4.  Interesting  New  Agencies. — Another  way  to  extend  the 
use  of  the  Exchange  is  for  those  who  do  use  it  to  point  out  to  those 
who  do  not  the  failures  in  treatment,  disastrous  to  both  alike,  that 
may  be  traced  to  failure  to  inquire.  The  attention  of  one  Jewish 
agency  was  called  to  a  family  for  whom  sixteen  societies,  twelve  of 
them  non-Jewish,  were  working.  This  was  the  final  argument  that 
induced  it  to  use  the  Exchange.  Or  if  a  society  is  sure  that  its  families 
are  never  known  to  other  agencies,  ask  it  to  let  you  look  up  some  of 
them,  promising  to  make  no  record  but  simply  to  find  out  how  many 
can  be  identified.  This  plan  has  been  tried  successfully  with  church 
sewing  societies,  private  relief  funds,  etc.,  two-tliirds  of  whose  bene- 


ficiaries  sometimes  have  been  found  in  the  Exchange  as  known  to 
one  or  more  agencies.  So  large  a  proportion  of  the  agencies  in  Boston 
now  use  the  Exchange  that  they  all  say,  "We  can't  afford  not  to." 
The  length  of  time  that  has  been  needed  to  bring  that  Exchange  to 
its  present  position  should  teach  patience  to  those  who  find  the  process 
of  starting  difficult.  Exchanges  will  develop  more  rapidly  now, 
however,  in  these  days  of  longer  social  vision. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  best  argument  for  the  Exchange  is  to 
use  it.  When  people  hesitate  to  inquire,  ask  them  to  experiment 
and  see  if  it  is  not  worth  while.  A  dispensary  physician  who  was 
asked  to  try  it  for  just  one  month  said  at  the  end  of  that  time  that  it 
had  made  him  realize  the  value  of  social  facts  in  dealing  with  medical 
cases;  that  it  made  him  think  more  of  his  patients.  Again,  urge 
them  to  inquire  about  doubtful  cases  at  least,  and  they  will  tend  to 
turn  more  and  more  often  to  the  Exchange  after  this  trial.  One 
church  worker  said,  "I  used  to  inquire  whenever  I  thought  there 
was  a  reason  for  inquiring.  Now  I  inquire  unless  I  have  some  special 
reason  for  not  doing  so." 

This  last  point  is  one  to  remember.  It  pays,  when  people  hesitate 
about  using  the  Exchange,  to  assure  them  that,  if  there  is  some  special 
case  about  which  they  are  unwilling  to  inquire,  they  need  not  do  so. 
The  longer  they  use  the  Exchange,  the  less  likely  they  are  to  make 
these  exceptions,  but  it  relieves  their  minds  at  the  start  to  know  that 
they  need  not  include  "exceptional  cases." 

5.  Answering  Objections. — Two  objections  will  probably  have 
to  be  overcome  in  any  city:  "There  is  no  need  for  us  to  inquire;  we 
do  not  give  relief;  it  would  not  help  us  in  our  work  with  the  family." 
"Our  relation  with  the  people  who  come  to  us  is  confidential  and  we 
cannot  record  their  names  elsewhere." 

To  answer  the  first  objection,  we  must  disabuse  their  minds  of 
the  idea  that  the  object  of  the  Exchange  is  to  prevent  overlapping  of 
relief;  and  must  show  instead  that  its  aim  is  to  pool  all  our  hard 
thinking  about  the  welfare  of  a  given  family,  in  order  that  we  may  do 
for  them  the  wisest  possible  thing.  This  need  was  well  expressed  by 
a  worker  in  a  rescue  home  for  girls,  the  type  of  agency  that  most 
often  feels  that  it  cannot  use  the  Exchange  because  of  the  special 
character  of  its  work.  She  said:  "I  owe  it  ,to  every  girl  who  comes 
to  me  to.  give  her  the  most  intelligent  treatment  that  I  can.  Here,  in 
the  Confidential  Exchange,  is  a  possible  source  of  valuable  information, 
and  I  am  not  justified  for  the  girl's  sake  in  neglecting  to  make  use  of  it. 
In  one  case,  a  girl's  mother  was  urging  her  to  give  up  her  baby,  conceal 
the  fact  of  its  existence,  and  come  home  to  live.  From  a  society  that 
had  been  interested  in  the  family  some  years  before,  I  learned  that  the 
mother  herself  had  had  an  illegitimate  child  and  given  it  up — a  fact 
which  distinctly  affected  my  attitude  toward  her  plan." 

It  might  be  well  to  give  those  who  inquire  about  the  work  a  card 
similar  to  the  one  used  in  Boston,  which  is  filled  out  with  a  real  story, 
the  naTnes  being  disguised.  On  the  reverse  of  the  card  is  printed  the 
following: 

13 


SURNAME  WOM'S  FIRST  NAME 

Cohen  Bessie 

MAN'S   FIRST  HAUL 

Abraham 


NAMES  OFAGENCICS- 


Hfthrftw  A3sfn5/28/0fl 


I^ass.Inf.Asy.6/27/Qj 


R+.-KlnorVids.  10/16/08 


PREVIOUS    MARRIAGES,  HU&O..  OH    WIFE 


j wynne  Home  5/3/09 


3o3. DispoSS.ll/17/08 


oibvhfla;:  DATE       occupation 


1 -Russia  1874 


"•Russia  |878 


flas3.Inf.Asy.7/ 25/10 


3hdns.Mistn.7/25/10 


3hdn3.Priencls8/5/10 


MENTAL ANS    PHYSICAL  DEFECTS 


i4asa.Gen.SS,   8/5/10 


Hang 


CHuoncn 

again 


:^ojd_ 


Morris     !.9Q3 


Bessie     1904 


Abraham  :.907 


Mary 


Jacob        J91Q 


1908 


22.QB 


1908 


1908 


1907 


BIRTHPLACE 

New  York 


Boston 


ADDRESS 

Everett 


1920  Dover 


1650  Washington 


1307  Warren  A^p- 


1482  Dover 


Dist. nurse  11/10/10 


OCCUP'N 


NAMC   HUSB.  OH   Ml.  C 


:&m 


ioontss 


6910   Char+.erSt. 


RELATIVES 


ADDRESS  KIN  NO 


Libisry  Bureau077(il]-A 


Sample  Index  Card  of  The  Boston  Exchange 
on  which  is  also  stamped  the  following:   "Identification  card  (with  names  changed) 
of  family  described  in  the  Annual  Report  of  the  Social  Service  Department  of  the 
Massachusetts  General  Hospital  for  iqio."    (For  reverse  see  p.  15  of  this  pamphlet.) 


H 


Extract  from  the  Annual  Report  of  the  Social  Service  Department  of 
the  Massachusetts  General  Hospital,  iqio 
"During  the  fall  a  patient  was  referred  to  us.  Much  agitated  she  tried  to  ex- 
plain, in  broken  English,  that  she  could  not  come  for  treatment  because  she  had  six 
children  to  care  for  and  her  husband  was  out  of  work.  While  the  patient  was  still 
at  the  hospital,  the  Department  inquired  by  telephone  at  the  Confidential  Exchange 
and  learned  that  the  family  had  been  known  for  several  years  to  the  Hebrew  Benevo- 
lent Association,  the  Mass.  Infant  Asylum,  the  Department  of  State  Minor  Wards 
of  the  State  Board  of  Charity,  and  at  different  times  to  the  Gwynne  Home  and  the 
Children's  Mission.  Each  of  these  agencies  was  communicated  with  and  a  con- 
ference of  those  most  interested  was  called.  In  view  of  the  new  problem  arising 
through  the  woman's  illness  a  new  plan  for  the  family  was  worked  out,  the  medical- 
social  worker  contributing  her  knowledge  of  the  present  physical  needs.  Two  of 
the  children  remained  in  the  care  of  the  State;  the  Mass.  Infant  Asylum  took  charge 
of  the  baby  until  the  mother  was  again  well  enough  to  receive  it;  work  was  found 
for  the  man  and  the  Hebrew  Benevolent  Association  furnished  a  visitor  who  could 
talk  intelligently  with  the  patient." 

Try  bringing  objectors  to  the  Exchange  and  showing  them  the 
mass  of  cards,  in  which  any  one  card  is  obviously  lost  unless  that 
family  is  again  inquired  about.  Emphasize  the  fact  that  nothing  need 
be  recorded  about  the  family  except  the  names,  the  address,  and  the  names 
of  the  societies  inquiring.  One  woman,  who  had  objected  to  inquiring 
about  the  families  known  to  a  society  of  which  she  was  a  director, 
came  in  to  see  the  Exchange.  The  registrar  looked  up  for  her  the 
card  of  a  woman  whom  she  knew,  and  when  she  saw  it  she  said  with 
astonishment,  "Why,  there  is  nothing  bad  about  her  on  it!"  All  we 
can  do  is  to  show  such  people  that  inquiring,  since  it  can  do  the  family 
no  harm  and  may  do,  it  infinite  good,  is  not,  therefore,  a  violation  of 
confidence. 

It  is  well  to  emphasize  both  in  publications  and  in  interviews  with 
incipient  inquirers  the  really  confidential  character  of  the  Exchange. 
Not  even  the  fact  that  a  given  family  is  known  to  the  Exchange 
should  be  told  to  any  individual  unless  the  Exchange  is  certain  that 
he  has  a  legitimate  charitable  reason  for  inquiring.  Commercial 
agencies,  the  sewing-machine  or  instalment  collector,  and  even  the 
lawyer  or  insurance  agent  should  not  be  able  to  learn  from  the  Ex- 
change the  present  whereabouts  of  a  family.  Give  information  only 
to  those  who  have  a  clearly  defined  social  interest. 

6.  Further  Arguments. — The  Exchange  introduces  agencies  to 
one  another.  One  physician  spoke  of  his  hesitation,  when  he  first 
began  using  the  Exchange,  in  calling  up  other  agencies  to  ask  what 
they  knew  of  a  family;  he  feared  they  would  not  give  confidential 
information  to  a  stranger.  But  when  he  said  he  had  learned  of  their 
knowledge  of  the  family  through  the  Confidential  Exchange,  it 
proved  an  open  sesame. 

Emphasize  the  fact  that  the  Exchange  is  a  protection  to  the  people 
indexed  in  it. 

A  man  applied  to  a  children's  agency  in  Boston,  asking  that  his  child  be  taken 
by  them  and  offering  to  pay  its  board.  He  said  that  the  mother,  Mary  X.,  was  an 
immoral  woman  whom  he  was  unwilling  to  marry.     In  the  Exchange,  the  man's 

•4 


Zo°c/Ar*°c.       "THE  CHAR 


Cripple:  sghooC 

UAY  Nursery  Associat-H^T: 

Deaconess  Home 

HAYMARKET  TUBER 

uouse  °Ff0°cVv: 


House  - 


G^" 


.  O"  tf 


^ 


^ 


S    CLEARING  HOUSE 

Will  Connect  You  With    Available 
Irr formation  From  3  0    Agencies 
Regarding)  3  0,000    of    Cleveland's 
Families. 


RESS  -  501  ST   CLAIR    AVE     N.  E 
-EPHONES-    MAIN  5163 
ERIE  112 


ft.fc.Wirf 


Arf 


rf> 


name  was  given  as  a  reference  in  the  case  of  another  girl,  Nellie  J.,  known  to 
a  second  children's  agency,  and  Mary  X.  herself  proved  to  be  known  to  the 
worker  in  a  hospital  social  service  department.  Through  inquiry  of  these  two 
agencies  the  children's  agency  learned  that  the  man  was  the  father  of  Nellie  J.'s 
illegitimate  child,  and  that  he  had  asked  the  second  children's  agency  to  take  this 
child  and  then  had  disappeared.  The  social  service  worker,  when  she  was  leader 
of  a  working  girls'  club  in  a  settlement,  had  known  Mary  well,  and  said  that  she 
was  a  capable  and  thoroughly  nice  girl.  Through  this  earlier  friendly  acquaintance 
the  hospital  worker  was  able  to  get  into  touch  with  Mary  again,  to  persuade  her  to 
confide  to  her  mother  this  trouble,  which  she  had  kept  from  her,  and  eventually  to 
induce  her  to  go  home  with  the  child.  The  man,  on  realizing  what  was  happening, 
left  the  state,  but  his  whereabouts  was  learned  and  he  was  brought  home  for  trial. 

This  argument  is  effective  with  those  agencies  which,  because  of 
their  peculiarly  intimate  relation  with  their  people,  can  appreciate 
the  value  to  the  family  of  having  their  own  knowledge  placed  at  the 
disposal  of  an  agency  newly  interested.  The  pastor  of  a  wealthy 
church  doing  extensive  work  among  the  poor  decided  to  inquire  when 
he  was  reminded  that,  if  he  did,  other  agencies  would  inquire  of  him 
before  they  began  aiding,  and  thus  give  him  a  chance  to  say,  "This 
is  our  family  and  we  assume  full  responsibility  for  them." 

Such  agencies  will  often  appreciate  also  the  saving  to  the  appli- 
cant's feelings  that  results  from  this  pooling  of  knowledge.  One 
woman,  in  the  course  of  a  few  months,  applied  to  practically  every 
children's  agency  in  Boston  as  well  as  to  several  other  societies — 
nine  of  them,  I  believe — asking  to  have  her  children  taken.  She  was 
a  deserted  wife,  and  the  society  which  had  the  matter  in  charge  was 
endeavoring  to  get  hold  of  the  man  and  bring  him  back,  and  had 
meantime  taken  two  of  the  children.  If  each  one  of  the  nine  had 
made  a  complete  investigation  (and  they  do  make  thorough  ones  in 
Boston),  just  think  of  the  waste  of  time  and  energy,  and  the  harm 
to  the  woman,  who  was  honest  but  ignorant.  Since  each  agency 
called  lip  as  soon  as  the  woman  came  into  its  office,  and  referred  her 
to  the  original  agency,  this  was  avoided. 

Some  societies  probably  never  will  consider  it  worth  while  to 
inquire  about  all  their  cases  and  from  them  we  must  take  the  half 
loaf  that  is  better  than  no  bread.  In  Baltimore  some  settlements 
inquire  about  all  families  that  need  any  sort  of  special  work  done  for 
them — not  merely  the  giving  of  relief,  but  medical  care,  treatment 
for  delinquency,  etc.  They  realize  that  they  need  to  know  whether 
the  tuberculosis  association,  the  school  nurses  and  visitors,  and  the 
school  attendance  officers  have  visited  the  family,  and  what  efforts 
in  their  behalf  have  been  made.  The  school  nurses  inquire  about 
certain  types  of  cases — backward  and  anaemic  children,  for  instance, 
but  not  about  all  the-children  who  come  under  their  care.  In  Boston, 
the  social  service  departments  inquire,  while  the  dispensaries  proper 
do  not.  The  superintendent  of  one  dispensary  said  that  the  number 
of  new  cases  in  the  dispensary,  75  to  100  a  day,  was  prohibitive;  it 
would  take  the  time  of  a  clerk  at  either  end  to  do  the  work,  and,  as 
doctors  do  .not  see  the  value  of  a  social  background  in  most  cases, 

18 


they  would  not  use  the  information  if  they  got  it.  Those  cases  that 
the  hospital  doctors  think  need  a  social  as  well  as  a  medical  diagnosis 
are  referred  to  the  social  service  department  of  the  hospital  and  thus 
are  registered  in  the  Exchange. 

It  may  be  taken  as  a  general  rule,  perhaps,  that  every  agency  that 
visits  families  in  their  homes,  or  whose  advice  is  likely  to  be  deter- 
mined by  or  to  affect  home  conditions,  should  use  the  Exchange. 
As  an  extreme  example,  it  would  obviously  be  of  little  value  to  inquire 
about  all  the  children  in  the  public  schools,  with  our  present  public 
school  program,  but  a  school  visitor  who  comes  into  direct  contact 
with  the  family  and  its  problems  should  inquire  about  the  children 
for  whom  she  is  working,  and  a  teacher  might  well  inquire  about  any 
child  presenting  a  special  social  problem.  The  treatment  of  chronic 
truancy,  moreover,  could  be  made  more  efficient  by  the  Exchange. 

7.  Early  Inquiry. — When  societies  have  agreed  to  inquire  of  the 
Exchange,  the  battle  is  not  always  won.  They  often  neglect  to  do  so 
because  of  pressure  of  work,  because  of  lack  of  office  equipment,  most 
of  all  perhaps  because  they  do  not  yet  realize  its  importance  vividly 
enough  to  do  it  in  spite  of  obstacles.  At  the  start  patience  and  per- 
severance are  therefore  necessary.  The  Exchange  must  often  be  con- 
tent to  accept  from  an  organization  simply  a  list  sent  in  at  regular  in- 
tervals of  the  families  in  which  it  has  become  interested  since  its  last  in- 
quiry. This  failure  to  inquire  immediately  about  each  case  is  almost 
inevitable  with  those  organizations  whose  work  is  done  by  volunteers 
and  which  have  no  office,  no  clerical  worker  and  no  official  telephone. 
In  such  cases  the  organization  should  specify  one  member  of  whom 
other  organizations  may  make  inquiry  concerning  individual  families. 

A  steady  effort  must  be  made,  however,  to  induce  workers  to  in- 
quire before  they  act  instead  of  recording  afterward.  The  value  of  the 
information  is  multiplied  many  times  if  it  is  secured  before  the 
investigation,  to  say  nothing  of  the  treatment,  is  begun.  The  right  of 
families  to  our  interest,  our  consideration  and  our  best  work  demands 
this. 

Some  agencies  which  have  a  telephone  in  a  room  other  than  that 
used  for  interviewing,  inquire  as  soon  as  they  have  secured  the  identi- 
fying information.  They  may  find  that  the  case  is  already  in  the 
hands  of  some  one  who  will  take  full  charge,  or  that  so  much  of  the 
fjumily  history  is  known  to  other  agencies  that  even  a  full  first  inter- 
view is  unnecessary.  In  contrast  to  this  promptness  may  be  cited  a 
juvenile  court  that  reports  its  .cases  at  the  end  of  the  month.  The 
workers  in  other  societies  complain  that  they  often  lose  the  opportun- 
ity to  give  information  about  family  conditions  which  would  have 
been  most  valuable  to  the  court.  An  excellent  stimulus  to  regular 
use  of  the  Exchange  is  the  report  blank  used  in  Boston.  The  report 
sent  to  each  agency  gives  the  exact  number  of  inquiries  that  it  has 
made  during  the  month.  Sometimes  agencies  are  surprised  to  learn 
how  seldom  they  have  actually  inquired  of  the  Exchange,  and  are 
stimulated  to  more  active  use  of  it. 

19 


THE  CONFIDENTIAL  EXCHANGE 
43  Hawkins  St.,  Room  31 
Telephone-Haymarket  371 
Office  Hours  9  to  5  daily. 


MONTHLY  REPORT 
JUNE,  191 1 


To 

(A  report  like  this  is  sent  each  month  to  co-operating  agencies.) 

Inquiries 

and  Received  from  YOUR  agency 

Reports 

Reports         Sent  to  YOUR  agency 


SUMMARY 


JUNE  1,  1910,  TO  MAY  31,  1911. 

Number  of  Inquiries  and  Reports 

Agencies  Reports  Received  Sent 

38  Children's  Agencies 8,367  4*698 

33  Medical           "       8,944  4,"3 

27  Relief               "       21,153  4,959 

37  Religious          "        356  162 

*S8  Miscellaneous"       25,794  i7>65° 

95  Agencies  in  other  cities 479  13S 

(367  Private  Individuals.)  343  7& 

Total  288 65,436  31,793 

Total  number  of  new  names  added  during  the  year .....13,440 

Total  number  of  names  previously  indexed  upon  which  a  report  or  inquiry 

has  been  received  during  the  year 6,321 

19,761 

It  takes  a  larger  staff  to  conduct  the  Exchange  if  people  inquire  at 
once  about  each  case  than  if  they  send  slips  at  the  end  of  a  week,  but 
it  is  by  such  prompt,  constant  inquiry  that  the  success  of  the  Ex- 
change will  be  assured.  I  believe,  therefore,  that  it  is  well  not  to  start 
the  Exchange  until  the  society  is  ready  to  provide  adequate  clerical 
and  telephone  service. 

8.  Using  the  Information. — The  inquiry  is,  however,  only 
half  the  story;  agencies  must  use  what  they  get  from  the  Exchange, 
and  here  lies  one  of  the  most  frequent  causes  of  failure  and  one  most 
difficult  to  remedy. 

*This  includes  inquiries  and  reports  from  16  districts  of  the  Associated  Charities. 

20 


An  outdoor  relief  official  showed  me  his  day's  slips  from  the  Con- 
fidential Exchange  with  pride.  A  rapid  glance  indicated  that,  of 
his  thirty  new  cases  that  day,  every  one  was  known  to  one  other 
agency,  many  to  several,  and  one  to  six  others.  On  my  inquiring 
what  was  the  next  step,  he  said  cheerfully,  "Oh,  we  don't  do  anything 
with  them. "  As  a  matter  of  fact,  of  course,  his  inquiry  was  of  value, 
since  other  societies,  such  as  the  children's  aid  society,  the  charity 
organization  society,  and  the  tuberculosis  association,  wish  to  know 
if  the  relief  department  visits  their  families.  But  for  his  own  work 
he  made  no  use  of  the  information  thus  available,  though  admitting 
that  his  staff  of  investigators  was  inadequate  to  do  good  work  with 
the  families  under  their  care.  As  one  physician  said,  "The  Con- 
fidential Exchange  is  the  right  plan  and  is  well  run.  Its  value  to  us 
depends  on  ourselves,  on  whether  we  make  use  of  the  sources  of  in- 
formation thus  secured." 

Some  societies  inquire  of  agencies  who  have  previously  known  the 
family  only  when  the  problem  is  difficult,  or  inquire  only  of  agencies 
having  full  records  and  intimate  knowledge  of  their  families.  Prob- 
ably one  of  the  best  services  which  a  council  or  advisory  committee 
can  render  is  to  discuss  fully  and  frankly  this  side  of  the  work,  show- 
ing cases  in  which  a  seemingly  unpromising  line  of  inquiry  gave  in- 
formation of  real  value. 

In  one  instance  a  society  was  making  desperate  efforts  to  secure  the  commitment 
of  a  degenerate,  feeble-minded  girl,  and  needed  evidence  that  there  was  an  heredi- 
tary tendency  to  insanity  in  the  family.  After  several  clues  offered  by  the  Con- 
fidential Exchange  had  been  followed  up  without  success,  they  learned  from  an  old- 
fashioned  relief  society,  whose  records  consisted  of  a  few  lines  written  in  a  book, 
that  the  girl  had  an  uncle  in  the  state  insane  asylum.  From  the  record  in  the 
asylum  they  secured  many  facts  about  the  family  heredity  and  also  the  name  of  the 
town  in  which  the  family  had  lived,  where  further  invaluable  data  were  brought  to 
light.  The  last  agency  that  one  would  have  considered  it  worth  while  to  inquire  of 
held  the  clue  to  the  needed  evidence. 


Inquiries  are  difficult  and  unsatisfactory,  of  course,  when  agencies 
have  no  telephone  connection  or  have  inadequate  records.  But  the 
following  up  of  every  possible  clue,  even  in  apparently  simple  cases, 
should  be  strongly  urged.  If  inquiries  are  frequent,  agencies  will  be 
stimulated  to  make  investigations  and  to  keep  records  that  will  save 
them  the  humiliation  of  having  to  admit  their  ignorance.  This  is 
one  reason  for  urging  certain  societies  to  join  the  Exchange,  even  if 
their  work  is  so  poor  that  their  use  of  it  will  be  neither  constant  nor 
intelligent,  and  their  help  to  those  already  co-operating  very  slight. 
One  society  had  always  kept  the  records  of  families  whose  names 
began  with  the  same  letter  of  the  alphabet  in  one  drawer  in  the  hap- 
hazard order  in  which  they  chanced  to  come.  After  they  had  looked 
over  fifty  records  early  in  the  morning  because  the  city  charities 
wanted  information  about  Mrs.  Mary  Brown,  and  looked  through 
the  same  fifty  the  next  hour  to  tell  the  children's  aid  society  what  they 


knew  of  Mrs.  Bailey,  they  began  to  understand  the  value  of  correct 
filing. 

With  all  newly  interested  societies  and  those  having  elementary 
systems  of  record-keeping,  the  workers  in  the  Exchange  must  be 
very  patient.  These  new  recruits  will  come  to  appreciate  its  service 
gradually,  and  to  realize  that  they  too  have  knowledge  to  contribute 
that  can  be  of  distinct  value  to  other  societies.  Each  inquiry  which 
brings  worth-while  knowledge  will  increase  in  geometrical  ratio  their 
willingness  to  make  use  of  the  Exchange,  even  at  some  expense  of 
time  and  effort. 

It  is  the  same  old  story  in  this  beginning  as  in  all  others  that  have 
social  welfare  for  their  goal;  we  must  be  ready  to  catch  the  other 
person's  point  of  view,  must  be  patient  in  trying  to  change  it,  ready 
to  accept  any  advance,  never  assuming  that  hesitancy  to  inquire  means 
antagonism  to  the  plan. 

To  the  casual  onlooker,  the  Confidential  Exchange,  with  its  files 
of  cards,  must  seem  to  embody  the  maximum  of  red  tape  with  the 
minimum  of  "charity."  We  must  kindle  his  imagination,  that  he 
may  see  as  we  do  that  behind  the  machinery  is  a  constructive  force; 
that  the  Exchange  is  not  a  device  for  preventing  overlapping  of 
relief,  that  it  is  not  a  benevolent  detective  agency,  but  that  it  does 
conserve  and'  render  more  efficient  our  service  to  an  important  section 
of  the  community.  The  Exchange,  aside  from  its  primary  purpose 
of  bringing  about  an  exchange  of  information,  may  thus  be  a  definite 
stimulus  to  better  standards  of  work  in  the  societies  using  it. 


IV.  OFFICE  METHODS 

Let  us  now  return  to  a  more  detailed  consideration  of  the  index 
files  which  constitute  the  mechanism  of  the  Exchange,  for  its  success 
depends  in  part  on  whether  cards  and  filing  systems  make  identifica- 
tion quick  and  accurate. 

i.  Card  Indexes. — The  system  should  be  thought  out  with 
great  care  at  the  start,  and  one  should  be  adopted  which  is  capable  of 
indefinite  expansion.  Baltimore,  after  three  years,  has  80,000  cards, 
Cleveland  in  two  years  30,000.  Choose  at  the  start  the  best  form, 
not  a  makeshift,  since  with  each  month  a  change  in  the  filing  system 
becomes  more  difficult  and  expensive.  Even  when  the  charity  organi- 
zation society  has  had  an  index  for  its  own  records,  which  is  not  suit- 
able for  the  Exchange,  it  is  better  to  adopt  a  nqw  card,  copying  the 
charity  organization  society  cards  gradually,  as  is  being  done  in 
Baltimore  and  Philadelphia.  Though  each  society  feels,  and  rightly, 
that  it  must  start  economically,  the  initial  cost  of  installing  a  record 
system  is  so  small,  compared  with  the  continued  expense  for  salaries 
to  operate  it,  that  it  is  more  economical  in  the  long  run  to  adopt  a 
system  that  makes  the  work  easy  and  thus  lowers  the  constant  ex- 
pense for  salaries.  This  is  shown  by  some  Boston  figures.  In  1901, 
98  different  agencies  inquired;  in  191 1,  288  different  agencies  inquired 


r 


first  name  of 


Harrington,    fArth 

first  na./.l  of  no.  2  (w 


(fearN; 


Amanda 


T0NeraT<rRTdnes 


MO.  TO 


England 


1  n 


.Boston 


'72 


UCCUPATlON 


jK  carpenter 


MENTAL  AND  PHYSICAL   1/tftCTS 


Stella 


■  I.H7M  YEAR 


John 


Amanda 


Walter 


T 


02 


1M 


061  1912 


08 


OSfet-3   PHIOR  TO    1ST   1ECOH0 


ADDSttfl  PHIOK  TO    1S1 

B2  Item  S 


167  Eagle   St 


JL2£}3_ 


1911 


AGENCIES 

24687 


C.A.S, 


City 


F.L.D 


Fb7»12 


API  9  MO 


1)^14' 11 


Mo 2 6* 12 


AUDf.ESSti   OKTHt   FAMIL1 

241    West  St 


187  Sumner  St 


24  Clinton  St 


ADDRESSES 


Mary  Walters,    261   Tenth   St- 


Thomas   Jones,   41  Main  St,, 


!»«  no.  30 


&U>-2r 


"hrc    2 


Index  Card  for  a  Confidential  Exchange. 
This  case  index  card,  with  accompanying  directions,  is  sold  at  cost  by  the  Charity 
Organization  Department  of  the  Russell  Sage  Foundation.    A  revised  edition  of  the 
card  is  now  in  press.     The  most  important  change  will  be  the  placing  of  the  wo- 
man's name  first,  as  on  the  Boston  card. 

23 


about  19,761  families  65,436  times,  and  yet  the  clerical  force  of  the 
Exchange  was  no  larger  than  it  was  in  1901.  By  eliminating  the 
copying  of  records,  by  simplifying  index  cards,  by  better  methods 
of  filing,  this  tremendously  increased  bulk  of  work  is  still  handled  by 
eleven  persons. 

•  The  Exchange  consists  of  two  indexes — one  the  general  index  of 
all  families  or  unattached  persons  known  to  the  Exchange,  the  other 
the  street  index  in  which  these  are  classified  according  to  the  numbers 
of  the  streets  on  which  they  live.  The  cards  in  the  latter  file  are  the 
same  size  as  the  general  index  card,  and  each  represents  one  street 
number;  on  this  are  entered  all  the  families  who  have  lived  or  now 
live  at  that  address,  made  out  as  follows: 

123  Charles  St . , 

Jones,  Mary  and  John. 
Potter,  Jane  and  Walter. 

When  one  of  these  families  moves,  the  name  is  entered  on  the  card 
for  the  new  address.  Some  societies  also  cross  out  the  name  on  the 
old  card,  though  this  is  not  absolutely  necessary. 

In  the  general  index  are  alphabetically  arranged  cards  for  all 
families  known  to  the  Exchange,  on  which  appear  those  items  useful 
in  identifying — first  names,  addresses,  relatives,  physical  defects,  etc. 
When  the  Exchange  is  conducted  by  the  charity  organization  society, 
the  index  cards  for  their  cases  are  included  in  this  file,  so  that  no 
other  index  is  necessary.  At  the  top  of  the  card  is  a  space  for  the 
number  of  the  case  record. 

The  entries  on  the  cards,  certainly  the  family  name,  should  be 
typewritten,  since  this  assures  more  rapid  identification  and  greater 
accuracy  in  filing. 

/In  addition  to  these  index  cards,  plain  cards  of  a  different  color 
should  be  used  for  cross  references,  such  as  aliases,  other  possible 
spellings  for  family  names,  the  woman's  maiden  name  (in  foreign 
families),  the  name  of  each  relative,  etc.  As  an  illustration  of  the 
use  of  the  latter,  an  agency  inquiring  about  Amanda  Jameson  is  in- 
formed that  she  herself  is  not  known  to  any  agency,  Nbjit  that  her 
daughter,  Jane  Potter,  has  been  known  to  the  city  charities  and  the 
associated  charities: 

Jameson,  Amanda,  wid. 

Mother  of  woman, 
Potter,  Jane  and  Walter 

Their  records  may  throw  light  on  the  history  and  character  of  Mrs. 
Jameson.  In  indexing  surnames  which  have  various  spellings,  the 
index  card  is  not  necessarily  made  out  under  the  spelling  which 

24 


the  applicant  uses,  but  under  the  most  common  spelling  of  the  name, 
and  a  reference  card  is  made  from  the  spelling  used  by  the  appli- 
cant. For  instance,  all  Reillys,  O'Reillys  and  Rileys  would  be  in- 
dexed under  Reilly,  with  cross  references  like  the  following: 

O'Reilly,  Martha  wid.  John 
see  Reilly. 

This  is  the  simplest  method  and  involves  the  least  writing  and  the 
briefest  search. 

2.  Filing  Cabinets. — The  index  cards  used  in  Boston,  New 
York,  Philadelphia  and  Baltimore  are  so  printed  as  to  file  with  the 
shorter  side  at  the  top.*  This  saves  considerable  floor  space,  an  im- 
portant consideration  in  large  agencies;  it  is  also  easier  to  handle 
cards  filed  in  this  way.  Although  in  the  standard  filing  cabinets 
cards  are  filed  the  other  way,  these  vertically  arranged  cards  can  be 
used  in  the  trays  adopted  by  the  Boston  Exchange  for  its  simple  and 
satisfactory  filing  system.  The  index  cards  of  that  Exchange  are 
filed  in  open  japanned  tin  trays  the  height  and  width  of  the  card, 
and  twenty  inches  deep — an  easy  reach  for  the  arm  of  the  filing  clerk. 
These  are  placed  on  an  ordinary  kitchen  table,  of  a  height  to  make 
it  easy  to  read  the  cards,  and  are  covered  at  night  with  dust-proof 
cloths.  The  initial  expense  of  this  system  is  small,  as  a  box  which 
holds  1,300  cards  can  be  secured  for  $1.20.  For  $25  one  can  secure 
an  equipment,  including  table  and  boxes,  providing  for  20,000  cards. 
This  system  is  not  only  economical;  it  also  provides  for  indefinite 
growth,  and  is  thus  a  good  one  for  cities  in  which  the  Exchange  is 
still  an  experiment. 

A  more  expensive  plan  is  to  use  a  four-drawer  filing  cabinet  hold- 
ing approximately  4,000  cards,  which  costs  $12.;  additional  sections 
to  be  secured  as  needed.  A  very  complete  filing  cabinet  has  recently 
been  devised  for  the  New  York  Charity  Organization  Society.  The 
top  is  an  oak  tray,  with  a  sliding  cover,  which  holds  three  rows  of 
vertical  cards,  with  partitions  between  the  rows.  Below  are  two 
drawers,  one  under  the  other.  The  disadvantages  of  this  system  are 
the  waste  of  time  and  effort  involved  in  pulling  out  the  drawers;  the 
fact  that  the  three  levels  of  cards  cannot  all  be  at  a  convenient  height 
for  the  eye  of  the  worker;  and  that  with  the  drawers  one  above  an- 
other it  is  difficult  for  more  than  one  worker  to  consult  the  cabinet 
at  a  time.  It  has  the  advantage,  of  course,  of  occupying  less  floor 
space  than  does  the  Boston  system,  though  only  a  few  of  the  largest 
Exchanges  need  to  consider  this  point  seriously,  f 

A  third  method  is  to  file  the  cards  in  large  shallow  cabinets  just 
the  height  of  the  card,  with  partitions  dividing  them  into  rows  the 

*  The  Boston  and  the  New  York  cards  are  printed  by  the  Library  Bureau  and 
are  adapted  to  the  use  of  any  Exchange. 

t  These  special  files  for  the  cards  can  be  secured  from  the  Library  Bureau. 

25 


/ 


/ 


width  of  the  card.  These  rest  on  standards  that  bring  them  up  to 
the  correct  height  for  the  use  of  the  clerks.  In  Baltimore,  such 
cases,  holding  at  least  80,000  cards,  were  secured  for  $180. 

Judging  from  the  experiences  of  the  cities  which  have  Exchanges, 
the  best  system  is  one  that  brings  the  cards  in  open  cabinets  at  the 
right  height  for  easy  reading  and  of  a  depth  adjusted  to  the  reach  of 
the  clerk's  arm.  To  consider  these  details  carefully  at  the  start  makes 
for  efficiency  without  additional  expense. 

3.  Methods  of  Inquiry. — The  Exchanges  usually  permit  so- 
cieties to  inquire  either  by  telephone  or  by  mail.  In  the  latter  case, 
slips  are  printed  or  multigraphed,  made  up  into  pads,  and  distributed 
free  of  cost  to  the  societies  using  them.  These  slips  correspond  in 
the  points  covered  and,  so  far  as  possible,  in  general  arrangement 
with  the  index  cards,  so  that  they  can  be  easily  copied.  They  are  used 
also  for  taking  down  telephone  inquiries. 

When  an  inquiry  is  received,  the  name  is  at  once  looked  up,  first 
in  the  street  index,  where  cases  are  easily  identified  in  spite  of  possible 
differences  in  spelling.  Whether  found  in  the  street  index  or  not,  it 
is  then  looked  up  in  the  alphabetical  index.  "TT  no  record  of  it  is 
found,  the  index  cards  are  at  once  made  for  it;  if  a  record  is  found, 
the  name  of  the  society  inquiring  and  the  date  are  added  to  the 
column  "agencies  interested."  This  agency  is  at  once  given  the 
names  of  societies  that  have  previously  inquired.  This  is  done  by 
telephone,  if  the  inquiry  has  been  made  by  telephone.  If  by  slip, 
the  names  of  the  agencies  and  the  dates  of  inquiry  are  stamped  on 
the  slip  itself,  in  the  space  at  the  bottom,  and  the  slip  is  then  mailed 
back  to  the  agency  inquiring.  The  Exchange  then  reports  this  new 
inquiry  to  the  societies  which  have  previously  inquired  about  the 
family.  Experience  has  indicated  that  it  is  wiser  for  the  Exchange 
to  pass  on  no  information  in  regard  to  the  family  other  than  the  names 
of  interested  societies. 

If  sufficient  information  is  not  given  to  make  identification  possible, 
the  agency  inquiring  is  so  notified,  with  the  request  that  it  inform  the 
Exchange  when  further  facts  are  secured.  In  Baltimore,  the  clerk 
puts  the  inquiry  slips  for  such  cases  in  a  basket  and,  at  the  end  of  the 
week,  if  she  has  not  received  additional  information  from  the  agency, 
she  calls  them  up  to  ask  for  it.  Chicago  registers  them  on  a  card 
of  a  different  color  in  a  separate  file,  and  reminds  delinquent  agencies 
from  time  to  time  of  the  cases  still  waiting  further  information.  Both 
of  these  plans  have  the  great  disadvantage  of  making  another  place 
in  which  to  hunt  for  each  new  case.  This  can  be  obviated  by  making 
and  filing  regular  index  cards  as  soon  as  inquiries  are  received,  no 
matter  how  meagre  the  information.  In  addition,  temporary  cards 
should  be  made  bearing  only  the  date,  names  of  the  family  and  the 
inquiring  agency,  to  be  filed  in  a  desk  tray.  These  can  be  examined 
every  few  days  and  the  delinquent  agencies  reminded,  the  cards  being 
destroyed  as  soon  as  the  information  is  received.  Boston  leaves  the 
responsibility  to  the  agency  inquiring,  except  that  when   another 

26 


Surname 

Woman's  First  Name. 

Man's  First  Name. 


No. 

Occupation 
Occupation 


Age. 
Age. 


Birthplace. 
Birthplace. 


Address 

Previous  Addresses 


Children's  Names. 


Age. 


Birthplace. 


Occupation. 


Date 

Remarks: 


Name  of  Agency. 


Report  from  Bureau  for  Confidential  Exchange  of  Information 


Slip  Furnished  by  the  Boston  Associated  Charities  to  Inquiring 

Agencies. 


27 


agency  inquires  about  a  family  that  resembles  one  of  these  unidentified 
cases  the  first  agency  is  telephoned  to  for  full  information.  In  a  new 
Exchange,  some  follow-up  work  is  probably  desirable  if  not  neces- 
sary, so  that  the  agencies  will  realize  the  necessity  for  furnishing  full 
identifying  information. 

Should  agencies  which  inquire  by  telephone  be  asked  to  confirm 
the  message  by  sending  in  a  written  slip?  Boston  and  Philadelphia 
allow  the  telephone  message  to  stand  without  confirmation,  believing 
that  the  time  required  to  make  out  slips  is  not  worth  while  for  the 
few  errors  that  would  be  thus  detected.  To  rely  on  the  telephone 
seems  rather  dangerous,  as  names  are  so  hard  to  understand,  but  I 
was  assured  that  the  registrars  rarely  learn  of  errors  that  have  oc- 
curred. In  Baltimore,  where  the  Exchange  does  ask  societies  to  send 
a  slip  after  telephoning,  the  identification  clerk  says  that  she  fre- 
quently receives  new  spellings  that  enable  her  to  identify  a  case  that 
she  had  failed  to  discover  before.  If  telephone  messages  are  accepted, 
the  clerk  must  be  trained  to  be  patient  and  careful,  and  to  read  back 
the  names  and  addresses  to  the  inquirer,  spelling  all  unusual  names. 
If  the  inquiring  agencies  realize  that  this  is  final,  they  undoubtedly 
use  more  care  themselves  in  giving  the  message. 

It  may  seem  wise  to  check  up  the  telephone  messages;  in  that 
case  the  memorandum  slips  on  which  they  are  taken  may  be  kept 
and  sent  to  all  inquiring  agencies  at  the  end  of  the  month,  with  the 
request  that  the  names  be  verified  and  the  Exchange  notified  of 
errors.  If  they  choose  to  neglect  this  the  responsibility  for  mistakes 
would  rest  with  them  and  not  with  the  Exchange.  Obviously,  if 
agencies  are  to  inquire  before  acting,  speed  is  desirable,  and  this  can 
best  be  secured  by  using  the  telephone,  but  speed  should  not  be 
gained  at  the  cost  of  accuracy. 

Some  agencies  have  offered  to  fill  out  the  index  cards  themselves 
for  the  Exchange.  Identification,  however,  is  more  difficult  if  the 
index  cards  are  not  perfectly  uniform — and  uniformity  is  hard  to 
secure  if  the  cards  are  filled  out  by  different  people.  Moreover, 
every  card  filled  out  and  sent  in  for  a  case  already  in  the  Exchange 
means  duplication  of  work.  The  consensus  of  opinion  is  that  in- 
formation should  be  given  by  telephone  or  on  a  slip,  and  the  card 
itself  typewritten  in  the  office  of  the  Confidential  Exchange. 

In  some  Exchanges,  societies  are  asked  to  re-register  once  a  year 
cases  with  which*  they  are  still  in  touch.  This  is  undesirable.  The 
Confidential  Exchange  should  not  try  to  keep  track  of  which  so- 
cieties are  interested  at  any  given  time  in  a  given  case;  it  should1 
merely  indicate  that  at  the  date  registered  a  certain  society  did  know 
the  family.  Whether  it  is  still  in  touch  with  that  family  or  desires 
to  assume  responsibility  for  it,  can  only  be  learned  from  the  society 
directly.  This  I  believe  to  be  a  most  important  point.  The  attempt 
to  keep  track  of  the  agencies  actually  working  on  a  given  case  would 
mean  an  impossible  amount  of  work  or  result  in  endless  confusion. 

4.  The  Personal  Equation. — With  a  sound  system  as  a  basis, 

28 


the  details  should  be  kept  so  elastic  that  they  can  be  adapted  where 
necessary  to  the  methods  of  societies  using  the  Exchange.  In  Cleve- 
land one  dispensary,  instead  of  using  an  inquiry  slip,  sent  the  record 
card  it  had  made  out  for  its  own  use.  The  Exchange  returned  this, 
after  stamping  on  the  back  the  names  of  the  agencies  interested. 
The  dispensary  thus  secured  the  names  of  agencies  interested  for  its 
permanent  record  without  having  to  do  any  copying  in  its  office. 
The  card  was  submitted  for  approval  to  the  Exchange,  which  found 
that  it  could  easily  make  the  index  from  this  record  form.  Especially 
at  the  start  or  with  new  agencies  you  must  take  what  you  can  get, 
in  any  form  in  which  you  can  get  it,  gradually  endeavoring  to  make 
the  method  uniform. 

In  discussing  office  system,  reference  should  be  made  to  the  need 
of  carefully  choosing  and  training  the  office  staff,  however  small  it 
may  be.  The  person  in  charge  must  have  both  business  efficiency  and 
a  social  view-point.  He  has  the  opportunity  to  make  other  agencies 
realize  that  the  Exchange  can  increase  the  efficiency  of  their  work  with 
families;  to  emphasize,  that  is,  its  positive  value.  He  must  also 
appreciate,  however,  the  necessity  for  making  the  Exchange  work 
accurately  and  easily.  The  inquiring  agencies  are  busy  and  some 
of  them  do  not  realize  its  full  value;  consequently  the  Confidential 
Exchange  must  so  plan  the  details  of  the  work  that  inquiring  will  be 
easy  and  satisfactory  for  them.  A  minor  detail,  but  one  that  some 
of  those  who  inquire  as  well  as  several  registrars  have  assured  me  is 
most  important,  is  the  telephone  manner  of  the  office  staff.  Patience 
and  courtesy,  a  pleasant  voice,  quick  recognition  of  the  agency,  an 
understanding  of  the  kind  of  work  each  does  and  its  point  of  view, 
all  help  to  make  societies  like  to  use  the  Exchange.  Through  the 
telephone  the  Confidential  Exchange  comes  into  direct  contact  with 
the  agencies  using  it  and  consequently  the  telephone  operator  must 
be  able  to  give  expression  to  the  spirit  of  the  management — not  that 
she  need  be  a  trained  worker,  but  that  her  personal  qualities  must  be 
considered  in  choosing  her  for  the  position. 

5.  Cost. — This  is  another  phase  of  charity  organization  work 
in  which  salaries  constitute  practically  the  total  expense,  for  the 
initial  cost  of  installation  is  small.  In  one  agency  which  during  a 
recent  month  received  614  inquiries,  205  of  which  were  identified,  the 
cost  per  month  for  the  wages  of  three  clerks  and  one-half  the  time 
of  the  registrar  was  $135.  The  Charities  Clearing  House  of  Cleveland 
cost  during  the  year  October  1, 1910,  to  September  30, 1911,  $1,124.17. 
Of  this,  $1,005  was  f°r  salaries,  $18  for  telephone,  $101.17  f°r  supplies, 
including  printing  and  a  filing  cabinet.  The  Confidential  Exchange 
in  Boston  spent  in  1911,  for  salaries,  $5,559.29;  for  filing  cases  and 
supplies,  $775.50;  for  light  and  care  of  office,  $144.04;  the  annual 
expense  for  salaries  being  85  per  cent,  of  the  total  expense.  Tele- 
phones constitute  an  additional  expense,  since  an  extra  trunk  line 
is  usually  necessary,  and  in  large  cities  more  than  one. 


29 


Thus  we  have  seen  that  a  form  of  service  started  years  ago  to  meet 
a  need  of  that  time  has  grown  into  something  quite  different  that  meets 
the  wider,  more  constructive  needs  of  the  present.  Beyond  a  doubt, 
Exchanges  will  develop  still  further,  but  the  course  of  their  develop- 
ment will  be  less  erratic  if  we  study  the  methods  of  those  now  in 
operation,  some  of  which  are  admirably  adapted  to  present-day  needs. 
It  is  in  the  hope  that  their  mistakes  could  be  avoided  and  the  best 
of  their  discoveries  utilized  that  the  foregoing  pages  have  been 
written. 


30 


PUBLICATIONS  OF  THE  CHARITY  ORGANIZATION 

DEPARTMENT  OF  THE  RUSSELL  SAGE 

FOUNDATION 

MISS  M.  E.  RICHMOND,  Director  FRED  S.  HALL,  Asso  Director 

MISS  M.  F.  BYINGTON,  Asso.  Director 


SERES  B  LEAFLETS 

1.  WHAT  IS  ORGANIZED  CHARITY? 

2.  RELIEF— A  PRIMER Frederic  Almy. 

3.  TREATMENT— (FAMILY  REHABILITATION) Porter  R.  Lee. 

5.  PASSING  ON  AS  A  METHOD  OF  CHARITABLE  RELIEF. 

No.  1,  80  cents  a  hundred.     No.  3,  70  cents  a  hundred,  Nos.  2  and  5,  St. 40  a  hundred. 
These  prices  and  all  that  follow  include  postage  or  expressage. 

MISCELLANEOUS  PAMPHLETS 

6.  THE  FORMATION  OF  CHARITY  ORGANIZATION 

SOCIETIES  IN  SMALLER  CITIES Francis  H.  McLean. 

S8.00  per  hundred. 

7.  WHAT     SOCIAL     WORKERS     SHOULD     KNOW 

ABOUT  THEIR  OWN  COMMUNITIES Margaret  F.  Byington. 

5  cents  each;  S3.50  per  hundred. 

JO.  ORGANIZATION  IN  SMALLER  CITIES Alexander  Johnson. 

60  cents  per  hundred. 

It.  A  MODERN  ST.  GEORGE Jacob  A.  Riis. 

Reprint  by  permission  from  Scribner's  Magazine,  $1.80  per  hundred. 

J2.  EFFICIENT  PHILANTHROPY Rev.  George  Hodges,  DJ5. 

$1.45  per  hundred. 

28.  THE  CONFIDENTIAL  EXCHANGE Margaret  F.  Byington. 

S3.50  per  hundred. 

29.  THE  INTER-RELATION  OF  SOCIAL  MOVEMENTS,  1912,  WITH  INFORMA- 
TION ABOUT  EIGHTY-SEVEN  NATIONAL  ORGANIZATIONS.     {In  Press.) 

$2.50  per  hundred.     (Price  subject  to  change.) 

FORMS,  BLANKS,  ETC. 

13.  TELEGRAPHIC  CODE  AND  TRANSPORTATION  AGREEMENT,  1 7  cents  each. 
16.  HOMELESS  MAN  RECORD  FORM,  85  cents  per  hundred. 

J  7.  DIAGNOSIS  AND  TREATMENT  RECORD  FOR  FAMILIES,  60  cents  per  hun- 
dred. 

18.  INQUIRY  BLANKS,  28  cents  per  pad  of  hundred. 

19.  INQUIRY  REPLY  BLANKS,  28  cents  per  pad  of  hundred. 

20.  CASE  INDEX  OR  CONFIDENTIAL  EXCHANGE  CARD,  36  cents  per  hundred. 

21.  DIRECTIONS  CARD  FOR  USE  WITH  CARD  NO.  20  (Supplied  without  charge 

with  orders  for  Card  No.  20). 

22.  CASE  RECORD  FORM  (yellow)  with  horizontal  lines,  75  cents  per  hundred. 

23.  CASE  RECORD  FORM  (yellow)  without  horizontal  lines,  75  cents  per  hundred. 

24.  CASE  RECORD  FORM  (blue)  with  horizontal  lines,  75  cents  per  hundred. 

25.  CASE  RECORD  FORM  (blue)  without  horizontal  lines,  75  cents  per  hundred. 

26.  RELIEF  RECORD  FORM,  with  horizontal  lines,  75  cents  per  hundred. 

27 .  RELIEF  RECORD  FORM,  without  horizontal  lines,  75  cents  per  hundred. 

Sample  copies  of  all  of  the  above,  except  the  Transportation  Agreement,  will  be 
sent  free  upon  request,  or  in  quantities  at  the  prices  named,  which  cover  the  cost  of 
postage  or  expressage.     Address 

CHARITY  ORGANIZATION  DEPARTMENT  OF  THE 
RUSSELL  SAGE  FOUNDATION 

Room  613,  105  East  22d  Street,  New  York  City 


3i 


THE  CATALOG 

OF  THE 

BOOK  PUBLICATIONS 

OF  THE 

RUSSELL   SAGE    FOUNDATION 

Will  be  sent  on  request  by 

SURVEY  ASSOCIATES,  INC. 
105  EAST  22d  STREET,  NEW  YORK 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 

AN  INITIAL  FINE  OF  25  CENTS 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN 
THW  BOOK  ON  THE  DATE  DUE.  THE  PENALTY 
W.LL  .NCREASE  TO  SO  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY  AND  TO  $1.00  ON  THE  SEVENTH  DAY 
OVERDUE. 


-MAfT^  1947 


7Dec'57Jfj 


-*&£^ — 


LD  21-100m-12,'43(879Cs) 


